With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness.... But that isn’t what you were taught when you learned about Christ... Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. (Eph. 4:17-23 NLT).

Monday, September 11, 2006

The Church's Hope

It has been said that North America, and especially Western Europe is now living in a post-Christian culture. What does this mean to the mission of the Church? For many it means it is time to abandon the Kirk. It is time to have spiritual places that are pit stops on the journey. Places where people can define god in their own way. Others say, we may keep the Church, but it must change its character. It has obviously failed. And it has failed because it is no longer relevant to the culture. We must change the church, to conform to the post Christian gestalt we find ourselves ministering in. No longer can we "preach" in the traditional sense. Oh, we can Narrate a story, as long as it is relatively short and incorporates video, music, drama. But, we must never "preach at" people.There are other solutions, but in the end of the day, there is one foundation we must be bound to, Jesus Christ:With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. But that isn’t what you were taught when you learned about Christ. Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness—righteous, holy, and true (Eph. 4:17,18,20-24 NLT).

The solution for the church's woes, is to stop living as the "hopelessly confused". There "must be a spiritual renewal" in the "thoughts and attitudes" of ourselves and those we try to reach.